Tag Archive: favorite posts

Humidity enveloped my clothing in a blanket of sweat as I trudged from the subway stop, taking great care to follow the path delineated in my Kowloon walking tour map. Halfway through a week in Hong Kong and its surrounds, I was ready to throw in the towel. My feet hurt from several days of walking,…

Where would we be in life if we couldn’t Facebook stalk one another? What would know or not know about each other? My cousin now “In a relationship”… The post-marital bliss of a barely-known Trojan alum… Blathering status updates of a colleague’s baby mama drama… Or an old high school classmate’s shared love of food.

Day 5 — Destination: Philadelphia. Dinner stop: Pat’s and Geno’s in Philly. After a one-day break in South Bend to refuel on sleep and energy, Robby and I set our sights on Philadelphia — a solid 10-12 hour drive, depending on how heavy your foot is. The flat dullness of the Indiana Toll Road and…

Our mornings were getting later and later as our restless legs and lack of good night’s rest began to catch up with us. Not only did I manage to forget our leftover KC barbecue for lunch, we also forgot to keep up with our gas levels, leading to some stressful stops in middle-of-nowhere, Midwest USA.

Day 3 — Destination: Kansas City. Dinner stop: Gates Bar-B-Q in Kansas City. As scenic and gorgeous as it was, the 12+ hour drive from Las Vegas to Denver nearly wiped us out. We were relieved to see the flat land of eastern Colorado and Kansas, if only for the fact that it meant that…

Day 2 — Destination: Denver. Dinner stop: Juicy Lucy’s in Glenwood Springs, CO. We said our goodbyes to Vegas early in the morning, armed with Starbucks Doubleshots and early morning adrenaline. The I-15N leaving Las Vegas was a calm, desolate stretch of highway, a stark contrast to the hoards of sinners ferrying between Los Angeles…

For whatever reason, be it novels or movies or those suave car commercials showing SUVs pulling smooth turns over a steep mountainside, cross country road trips still carry cachet in the minds of American people. The freedom of the open road, idyllic American countryside, a slowed sense of time.

I don’t claim to be a guacamole expert, or to have some secret recipe passed down to me from a long-lost Mexican grandmother, but I have learned a few tricks that ensure that my guacamole gets devoured at every barbecue and party in about 10 minutes.

As an old Cantonese proverb says, “Anything that walks, swims, crawls or flies with its back to heaven is edible.” In Guangzhou, China, capital of the Guangdong (Canton) province, the go-to place for all things edible is Qingping Market, a collection of dusty stalls that spans a 1 km section of Qingping Road and the…

Introducing the first of what I hope to be many posts by my friend and fellow traveler Trevor Throntveit, an all-around adventurer and lover of all things Asian that attracts women and trouble wherever he goes. Oh, and he’s an excellent writer. Hear him wax poetic on the elegance of a 12-course Sichuan dinner in Hong Kong.

Despite having cooking techniques, ingredients and customs spanning many generations, Balinese restaurant culture as it stands today has really only evolved in the last 40 years. For many years, these islanders didn’t see restaurants as a place of social gathering.

A low chant rings in the distance. “CHEE hee oh ee CHEE hee oh ee CHEE hee oh ee…” Dozens of men, enrobed only in a plaid sarong, emerge onto the stage and form a circle, their hands waving in the air. The multiple concentric circles formed, the chant breaks into the chatter of a hundred monkeys.

In the heavy heat of the mid-afternoon, East Bali was beginning to blur. As our driver Ketut zoomed past temple after temple, the only indication that there was anything more to this small village than some nondescript buildings and wandering dogs was a small handwritten sign nailed to a post: “WHITE SAND BEACH.”

When shopping for international flights, some of the best deals can be found on discount travel websites such as Vayama or Best Travel Store. But as third party agents, there is always some apprehension as to whether or not it’s “safe” to do so. If you Google either or, the suggested search terms include “scam” and “complaints.” It’s easy to get scared off.

The crowds of Central and Kowloon seem but a distant memory as you hike through the peaceful trails of Sai Kung East Country Park, located in the eastern coast of Hong Kong. Follow the pathway from Pak Tam Au toward Tai Long Wan beach, weaving through a rundown village and up into the mountains for spectacular views before giving way to clean white sand.